Lange brings winning ways to Cardinals

July 22, 2013

SPRING MILLS-Though some of the faces on the coaching staff at Spring Mills are familiar to the area, golf coach Brian Lange is a newcomer.

Having coached in the Baltimore County public school system, Lange comes with successful experience and a drive to further the awareness of golf. His team in Baltimore County won the county championship as a team and had individuals compete at the state level. He's hoping to bring that same success to Spring Mills but knows that it will take work to get there.

"We're working on strong fundamentals as well as proper etiquette and sportsmanship," Lange said. "Our goal is to keep it classy."

He has a young group of golfers, though some of the team has experience. A good swing will be one of the key areas of work for Lange's team.

"The fundamentals are initially unnatural to learn," Lange said, adding that its not like a good throwing arm, which comes out of instinct.

Though it will take practice to make a winning team, Lange is happy that having the team is possible, saying that some high schools in the area have lost their teams. A lack of awareness is partially to blame, but as coach, part of Lange's goal is to build a program that will avoid that problem.

"We're basically bringing about more interest in golf as a sport in the area," Lange said.

The program will work on getting future golfers interested and making those who don't know aware that playing golf is an option in high school. Lange wants to get kids interested earlier, such as in middle school, so they can be more experienced and practiced with their fundamentals come high school.

Building the team overall will be a focus in future years for the team. Limited to only three classes in the opening year, there aren't as many golfers as there would be in an established school.

"The next few years are to build the senior class," Lange said, noting that adding another class to recruit from will benefit the team.